Writing to Change the World - Hardcover

Pipher, Mary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594489203 ISBN 13: 9781594489204

Publisher: Riverhead Books, 2006

Synopsis

Integrating practical instruction with inspiration and reflections, the author of Reviving Ophelia explains how to convey a meaningful message through one's writing, describing the various steps in the writing process--from brainstorming to publishing--as well as the various forms of advocacy writing and practical how-to-advice. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Mary Pipher, Ph.D., is the author of the number-one New York Times-bestselling Reviving Ophelia, as well as The Shelter of Each Other, Another Country, The Middle of Everywhere, and Letters to a Young Therapist. She was a Rockefeller Scholar, and received the American Psychological Association's Presidential Citation. Currently, she is a visiting professor in both the English and Psychology departments at the University of Nebraska.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this very personal writing guide, Pipher talks about the importance of point of view in writing, and she has a definite point of view here, tilting to the left: the world is in a bad way, and writers can serve as a "rescue team for our tired, overcrowded planet" by "tell[ing] stories that connect readers to all the people on earth." Pipher offers some good examples of how to accomplish this, particularly in a thoughtful and clever essay that presents the U.S. as a patient in a therapeutic case study ("Diagnosis: Post-traumatic stress disorder, multiple addictions"). And she offers useful advice in her sections on defining success (measured not in terms of sales but in terms of "giv[ing] our time and talents to help others") and revising, which she compares to pruning and weeding. There are dozens of pithy and inspiring quotes from a variety of writers, among them Woody Allen, Joan Didion and Eudora Welty. Those, along with Pipher's chipper you-can-do-it tone, will encourage idealistic aspiring writers, who will surely find inspiration in her assertion that writing can heal the world. (Apr.)Correction: Our review of Gary Schwartz's The G.O.D. Experiments (Reviews, Feb. 13) should have read, "Chance rather than order is the exception to the rule in the universe."
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About this edition

• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1594489203
• ISBN 13: 9781594489204
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 236